The Total Eclipse controversy

    If you ever owned The Number of the Beast on CD, it may or may not have contained the song "Total Eclipse." Even the recent digipak releases (pictured on the left above) exclude it. The story goes that it was competing with "Gangland" for which song would make the album and which song would be a B-side for one of the singles. 

    When the album was initially released, "Gangland" was chosen, and "Total Eclipse" was excluded. Since then, band members have expressed that perhaps they made the wrong choice, and it was added to some of the subsequent releases. In fact, while "Gangland" has never been performed live, there are performances of "Total Eclipse" to be found on the internet (such as this one).

    What do you think? Did Maiden make the right decision? Is the 8 song version better, or should they both be on there? Let us know!